Hello California BA's, I am planning a California vacation for next year. I am basically going to travel from the top of California all the way down to San Diego over 2 weeks. I've been into beer for a while, so I know the major breweries to hit. I would like suggestions on what little known breweries to hit. Good bars. Good restaurants, and other California things that I should not miss. Cheers!
When in San Luis Obispo, go to Tap-It brewing. Fun place, good beers (IPA won gold at GABF last year... it's good but nowhere near the top of the best IPAs even in CA). For a lesser known brewery when you are in Orange County probably visiting The Bruery, head down the 57 a few miles and hit Noble Aleworks in Anaheim. In terms of San Diego, there are so many new startup breweries down here that you'll always find someone recommending you a different one, and for each person you will find 3 more who will tell you not to waste your time going there, so I'll just let that evolve on its own as the thread goes on...
Lets see I'll try and keep adding since not much response yet. When you are in Santa Rosa visiting Russain River, one the great small breweries of California is Moonlight Brewing. They don't have a tasting room and you can't visit their brewing facility (as far as I know), but there is a bar/restaurant a couple blocks from Russian River called The Flavor Bistro which usually has about 6-8 Moonlight taps. Toronado, the famous beer bar in San Francisco, also will have a Moonlight or two (or three) beers on tap as well, but Flavor Bistro has always had the most extensive lineup. If you want the best Irish Coffee you will ever have while in SF, go to Buena Vista Cafe. I know Lagunitas is probably a "big boy" in terms of breweries since you probably have access to those down in FL or in some East Coast places, but it is really worth a trip to hit up their brewery/beer gardens while up near Russian River.
Sante Adarius - Capitola (near Santa Cruz which I guess is in turn near the Bay Area) Alpine - near San Diego Societe - San Diego Kern - not near anything unless you're visiting the Sierras. Or Bakersfield I guess
Are you just hitting breweries? Or checking out the scenery as well? Are you heading down the coast, 101, central valley or 395? Are you flying into Oregon? SF? Redding? Chico? Seeing as how you're from Florida, think about it this way. California is twice as long as FL and as wide as Jacksonville to Tallahassee. Lots of space to cover...
That would be rarity, somebody flying into Redding that doesn't live here. You are obviously correct, a lot of people forget how massive this state is. I'm actually closer to Seattle than I am San Diego.
I plan on flying into either Portland or Seattle. I budgeted 2 weeks for the whole vacation, so I'm ready to go anywhere in California. Probably work my way down the redwood coast, then head east to hit FiftyFifty, Yosimite, then back east to get over to LA to head south from there to San Diego.
maps.google.com is your friend here. The drive down the redwood coast is beautiful, but it's definitely slow. CA is a big state, and doing what you propose is somewhere in the neighborhood of 24 hours of driving and that's not counting all the local trips that you'll want to do in SF, LA and SD - which can easily add up to another 12 hours. It's definitely doable, but you're going to end up spending a lot of time in the car.
I'm definitely going to merge the map to google maps. The nice thing about having a giant road map is that I can see the whole trip right in front of me. I have 2 weeks planned for the whole trip.
